Sliding door for railway-cars



(No Model.) v 2 Sheets-Sheetv l. A. B. PULLMAN. SLIDING DOOR FOR RAILWAY GARS.

No. 421,084. Patented Peb. l1, 1890.

@m im @Mami (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2. A. B. PU'LLMAN.

SLIDING DOOR FOR RAILWAY GARS.

110. 421,084. m1611191 Feb. 11, 1890,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT B. PULLMAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SLIDING DOOR FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 421,084, dated February 11, 1890.

Application filed November 14, 1889. l Serial No. 330,325. (No model.)

To all wiz/0m if may concern:

Be it kn own that I, ALBERT B. PULLMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Sliding Doors for Railway-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the general class of so-called sliding doors for freight cars, stock-cars, and the like wherein the door is hung from its upper end. The hangers employed with doors of this character are of great variety, some involving the use of sheaves, rollers, or balls, and others the use of various sliding devices; but whatever the particular class of hanger may be the doors hung in t-his manner, provided their lower ends are not restrained by a guide, have one characteristic in common, which is that of being pivotally fixed at the upper end to the wall of the car and capable of being swung freely to and from the wall of the car at all points below the'line of suspension.

The-object of my present invention is to combine with sliding doors for vcars of the general character above defined a simple and thoroughly-effective cinder-guard or sparkguard, thus overcoming an important difficulty in railwaycar construction; and to accomplish this object I avail myself of the pivotal characteristic mentioned above as being peculiar to sliding doors of the general class named.

My invention consists in providing the wall of the car at the rear side of the doorway (meaning thereby the side which is in the direction of movement of the door in opening) with a vertical tapering cleat, the thickest portion of which is toward its base, so that in order to be either opened or closed the door Y must be swung outward at its lower end sufiiciently to permit it to clear the cleat; also, in combining with the sliding door and tapering cleat fastening agencies for permitting the door to be secured at will against outward movement; also, in combining with the construction last defined means for limiting the outward movement of the lower end of the door to the extent or a little more than the extent necessary to allow the door to clear the cleat, and, furthermore, in certain details of parts, all as and 6, cross-sections of the tapering cleat,l

showing modifications in the form thereof.

A is the wall of the car, and B the sliding door, suspended at its upper end by means of a suitable hanger, represented by O.

D is the tapering cleat secured-to the wall of the car in the position represented in the drawings with relation to the door-that is to say, at the rear side of the doorway. At its lower end the thickness of the cleat is preferably somewhat less than that of the door, and from this point or from a point a little above the lower end the thickness of the cleat gradually diminishes toward the upper end. The outer surface of the cleat may be either flat or rounded, and, if desired, the sides may be beveled, as shown in Fig. 5, in which case the edges of the door may also be beveled.

In the practical application of my improvement to cars it is advantageous to limit the outward movement of the door to an extent just about sufcient to permit it to clear the cleat when being opened or closed. In addition to this, it is desirable that means be provided for` preventing wear of the parts by frictional contact in opening and closing the door, and it is of course also desirable that means be provided for securing the lower end of the door against the wall of the car either in its open or closed position; but as these provisions are not indispensable in all cases the particularmechanism for any one or more of them may be omitted, when desired, without affecting the remaining features of my Y invention.

The several requirements named are alll ful- IOO from its outer edge; This bracket extends to bot-h sides of the cleat, as shown, and its position is such that the lower edge of the door can swing in and out freely over the flange t. Set into the lowerl inner face of the door lush with the surface and projecting below the lower edge of the door to an extent sufficient to cause it to reach below the top of the tlange t is a metal strip s, firmly securedin place to the door and extending the whole width thereof. This strip S where it projects below the door serves to limit the outward movement of the latter by bringing up against the flange t. In addition to this, it performs the function of a chaiiug-strip, acting in conjunction with a metal plate 7' upon the outer face ot' the cleat D at its lower end,which, by extending beyond the surface of the cleat, maintains the'door out of Contact therewith when sliding, and thus operates as a chatting-plate, having contact only with the strip s. The plate Ir may be a simple rectangular piece of metal flator rounded upon its outer face and fastened to the cleat, or it may form the front side of a socket q, cast upon the bracket E, to receive the lower end of the cleat, as represented in the drawings; or, in case the cleat is made of metal, as it may be, the plate 0' may take the form of a projection integral with the cleat.

For the purpose of either opening or closing the door it is necessary to swing it from the body ol the car, so that it may pass by the cleat, and obviously after it has fully passed the cleat in cit-her direction it will tall back, if unrestrained, to its position against the wall of the ear. As the position of the cleat is such that the rear edge of the door will be in close contact with it when the door is closed, it is obvious that the cleat serves eiectually to prevent the entrance of sparks and cinders into the interior of the car. Each way from the bracket E, which is preferably a double bracket, (though obviously two single brackets may be substituted for it,) and at a suitable distance therefrom, is a single bracket E', similarly secured to the wall of the car, and likewise provided with a llange t, projecting upward from its outer edge, to limit the outward movement of the door by serving as a stop for the strip s. Vhen the door is in contact with the wall of the car, either in its open or closed position, the inner surface ot the flange t of the bracket will be a short distance outward from the plane of the door, and to ret-ain the door against outward movement, when desired, bolts p are provided upon the door to enter the intervening space.

When required, the door may be 4locked or sealed in. any suitable way.

Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a railway-car, the combination, with a sliding car-door pivotally hung at its upper end, whereby it may be swung to and from the wall of the car below the line of suspension, of a cleat D, tapering substantially throughout its whole extentand secured vertically against the wall of the car upon the rear side of the doorway, substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

In combination with the wall A of a railway-car and sliding door B, pivotally sus* pended thereon by means of a hanger, whereby it may be swung to and from the wall oi the car below the line of suspension, the vertical cleat D at the rear side of the doorway extending trom about the bottom to the top of the doorway and tapering substantially throughout its whole length, and a fastening device for securing the lower end of the door at will against the wall of the car, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with the wall A of a railway-car and sliding door B, pivotally suspended thereon by means of ahanger, whereby it may be swung to and from the wall of the car below the line of suspension, and provided along its innerlower edge with a metal chang-strip s, of the vertical tapering cleat D, secured to the wall A upon the rear side of the doorway, and provided toward its lower l end with the metal plate r, to come into contact with the @hating-strip s, substantially as described.

4C. The combination, with the wall A of a railway-car and sliding door B, pivotally suspended thereon by means of a hanger, of the tapering cleat D, secured to the wall A upon the rear side of the doorway, and a stop for limit-ing the outward movement of the door to about the extent required to permit it to pass over the cleat, substantially as described.

5. In combination with the wall A of a railway-car, the sliding door B, pivotally suspended thereon by means of a hanger, and provided with a metal strip s along its inner lower edge, projecting below it, tapering cleat D, secured to the wall A upon the rear side ot the doorway, and one or more brackets secured to the wall ofthe car below the level of the door, each having a flange t overlapping the projecting strip s and limiting the outward movement of the door to about the ex- J. XV. DYRENFoRTH, M. J. Fnos'r.

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